Maybe you just exude a huggable vibe. I think I have an involuntary facial spasm if it looks as if a fellow is going to try to hug me, because the reaction usually involves putting their arms down and apologizing.

People have commented on how I seem to have a bubble around me that says "DO NOT TOUCH". I'm ok with that. Women that are not my wife are too touchy.

There was a British business woman that visited work before Covid that introduced herself and said "I hear people like to hug around here". She then proceeded to hug a couple of sales and marketing people in the room. As she came close to me and an engineer standing off to the side, she paused, admired the look of horror on our faces and extended her hand. Smart woman.

We have a friend who is Guatemalan. Years ago he teased me about "white people" who don't like to hug. Then several weeks ago we had dinner (just as we were starting to pay attention to that Chinese virus thing that's been going around) and found out he'd been in ICU for a full week. Turns out he'd had some oral surgery that went really bad and introduced an infection into his jaw that traveled through his body and created swelling in his throat so bad that he almost died. Doc in the ER basically said if he'd waited another hour they probably would have lost him. Our friend is a fit and active guy; sky diving, hunting, motorcycle racing, etc... This was really a blow to him and his lifestyle. He'll be on a series of antibiotics for another 60 days and he's super vulnerable if the Rona gets to him.

Speaking of Dr. Fauci, what is your take on the laugh and facepalm issue? I want to be open minded but I can't get on board with it being a seminal moment showing embarrassment and divide between him and President Trump. It looked to me like he was hiding a laugh at President Trump's joke. I couldn't find a great clip of it but here is a version -

Funny this comes up.Tonight I had curbside pick up at the grocery, but forgot a couple things, so I go in. There were about 1/2 dozen people in the store. One of them is a cross country mom who's a friend, but we haven't seen for a while.

She sees me and comes running over to give me a hug, pauses, Turns her head to the side saying "social distancining!" then squeezed the life out of me.

She's well endowed, so I oblige. I suppose there are worse ways to get a virus.